Ombersley

For the locality in Australia, see Ombersley, Victoria.

Ombersley is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, England. As well as the village itself, the parish also covers surrounding rural areas with several small hamlets, including Holt Fleet, where Thomas Telford's 1828 Holt Fleet Bridge crosses the River Severn. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 2,407. Since 1973 it has shared a grouped parish council with the neighbouring parish of Doverdale.

Ombersley
The Kings Arms, Ombersley
Ombersley Location within Worcestershire
Population	2,407 (Parish, 2021)[1]
OS grid reference	SO844635
• London	103 miles
Civil parish	Ombersley
District	Wychavon
Shire county	Worcestershire
Region	West Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	DROITWICH
Postcode district	WR9
Dialling code	01905
Police	West Mercia
Fire	Hereford and Worcester
Ambulance	West Midlands
UK Parliament	Mid Worcestershire
List of places UK England Worcestershire 52.271302°N 2.228711°W / 52.271302; -2.228711

History

See also: History of Worcestershire

The first known reference to the village^[2] was the granting of a Charter to Abbot Egwin, later Saint Egwin, of Evesham Abbey in 706 AD. This was the Charter of King Æthelweard of the Hwicce, which granted twelve cassates in Ombersley to the Benedictine Abbey at Evesham.^[3]

During the reign of William the Conqueror, the Domesday Book indicates the village was within an exclave of the ancient hundred of Fishborough in 1086 and remained the property of the Abbey of Evesham (Saint Mary).^[4] It remained the property of the abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the early 16th century. By 1848 the village was within the parish of Ombersley (St. Ambrose), in the hundred of Oswaldslow.^[5]

Royal forest

Ombersley was part of a royal forest until 1229. The forest gives the village its name.^[6]

Ombersley Court

Ombersley Court is traditional home of the Lords Sandys, many of whom are buried in the family mausoleum in the churchyard of St Andrew's parish church. When St Andrew's was built in its current form between 1825 and 1829, the chancel of the old church was adapted for use as mausoleum for the lords of the manor.^[7] The architect of the church was Thomas Rickman; the cost of building was £18,000 of which two-thirds was contributed by Mary Sandys, dowager Marchioness of Downshire.^[8] It is grade I listed. ^[9]

St Andrew's church

Churchyard of Saint Andrew's church

Governance

There are three tiers of local government covering Ombersley, at parish, district and county level: Ombersley and Doverdale Parish Council, Wychavon District Council, and Worcestershire County Council. The parish council is a grouped parish council, established in 1973 to cover the two parishes of Doverdale and Ombersley. They remain legally separate civil parishes, although they are sometimes inaccurately described as being a single parish.^[10][11][12]

Geography

Ombersley is 6 miles north of Worcester, 4 miles west of Droitwich, and 10 miles south of Kidderminster on the intersection of the A449 & A4133. The western boundary of the parish is the River Severn; to the east, Hadley Brook forms much of the boundary with the parish of Doverdale in the east, and the River Salwarpe, to the north of the Droitwich Canal, forms the southern boundary before it joins the Severn.

Listed buildings

As of April 2022^[update] there are 151 listed buildings in the parish. Ombersley Court is grade I listed, five buildings are grade II* listed and 145 are at grade II.^[13]